Cheap Films anyone (globalvideo.co.uk)

Member Name: tonybone

Product:	globalvideo.co.uk
Date:	15/01/02 (1348 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very Cheap

Disadvantages: They are Ex rental

Recently I seem to have had an obsession with getting hold of what are considered expensive items, at discount prices. I suppose this isn’t a bad thing, and it has really opened my eyes to the fact that if you hunt around a bit, you can slash the price of most goods. One of my discoveries has been Global Video…..

I’ve never been heavily into films. If I watch one, then it has to be very good to keep my interest. For this reason I don’t usually buy films on video. Furthermore I consider paying up to £16 just for a piece of plastic with some tape inside, a bit of a rip off. Considering that the average person probably only watches a film once or twice, there is little point in paying out so much money. The alternative is either to watch it at the cinema when it comes out, wait until it appears on television or rent it……and it’s the "rent it" part that I’m talking about!

Global Video are a massive company, although I had never heard of them! Apparently they are Europe’s largest independent video hire specialist, with 265 stores. Now, I’m not suggesting that we all go out and rent a film, as most of us have done that and know all about it. The alternative is to buy an ex-rental film. This is where Global Video come in……

Their website is a basic design, but easy to navigate. They specialise in selling ex-rental movies over the Internet. I think that this is the perfect solution - if you are only going to watch a film once or twice, then what is the point in forking out nearly £15 (sometimes) on a brand new shrink wrapped video? If you are like me, then the first thing that comes into your mind when you hear the word "ex-rental" is bad quality. I don’t know why, but I just imagined the video to be battered and the picture to be of a lower quality.

The next video I wanted was the Blair Witch Project - it had only just been released on VH
S at the time, and searches on Kelkoo and Shopsmart returned best prices of around £10 excluding delivery. This was better than the high-street, but as it turned out, not as good as Global Video! I decided to check on their site and after a simple search located the Blair Witch Project at only £4.99. Without further ado, it was ordered on a standard delivery. I received an email confirmation immediately, and the video arrived 2 days later. It was well packaged and to look at the video case, you would never know that it was ex-rental. The same goes for the picture itself - it was as clear as any new video I have ever bought.

Going back to the website. As I said, it is very easy to navigate with side bars that direct you to different areas. The movie store is the largest part of the site and upon entering, you are presented with the latest bargains, followed by some search criteria boxes. Finding a movie is extremely straight forward. There are 5 ways in which you can search, with a box provided for each: You can either select the movie category, such as Action, Thriller, Horror etc. Alternatively you can search by movie title, director, star name or, if you like a bargain, price!! Their movies actually start at £2.99 which is very cheap indeed. Obviously the £2.99 movies are generally older or less popular, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t bargains there. I was very pleased with the price that I paid for the Blair Witch Project.

The site has a few other sections, including the Pre-order section. In here you can look at the release dates for movies and pre-order them. Prices for these are usually £9.99, which is still cheap considering that it is only just released. Besides movies, they also sell PC and Playstation games. From what I can see, they don’t seem to have a wide range of titles, but the ones that are there, seem competitively priced.

I haven’t jumped on the DVD bandwagon yet, so I’m not too
sure about them. However Global Video do sell the ex-rentals in VHS and DVD format, however there seems to be more titles on VHS.

So, should I visit this site?? Well, if you buy movies and don’t like paying over the odds, then you are bound to get a nice surprise. From my experience, the quality is not affected by the fact that they are ex-rental, but then again I have only bought one title so far. However at some of the prices they offer, it would be madness not to give it a go!

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